“Justifying the Roar,” Even at 0-2

“We should be eager, especially, to support a team that—if NCAA sanctions achieve their goal—may not be very good for the foreseeable future.”

That sentence is part of an essay that appears in our Sept./Oct. issue (you can find a PDF version of it here). Like nearly everything in the issue, it was inspired by a tumultuous summer that left Penn Staters angry, sad, and unsettled. In writing it, I focused on our collective support for the football team, something most of us take for granted—why would we not?—but an idea that the much of the outside world views as questionable, if not unconscionable. Confronting those competing perceptions, I felt it was worth making the case for why we still care about football.

Along the way, I stumbled across another question: What if—on the field, at least—Penn State football didn’t give us much to root for?

Well, our team is 0-2. I was in the stadium for every second of the opening loss to Ohio, and I watched every second of that heartbreaker last week in Charlottesville. On Saturday, I’ll be back in Beaver Stadium for the visit of Navy, and it’s hard for me to imagine a scenario in which I won’t stay from start to finish. For me, those first two losses will make the first win under Bill O’Brien that much more rewarding. I don’t want to miss seeing it in person.

And if we lose Saturday? I’ll say the same for Temple’s visit next week.